Here is the only documentation of the infamous fight that happen when I went to Beijing.






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I will be in Malaysia for the Next week so I am sure there will be plenty of stories to tell.

Nick

Closing of Nick's Olympic Games 2008

China has been a great place and will be very memorable for me. This is a country unlike any other. These folks are capitalist communists. They are working hard to make a buck just like my fellow Americans. Well soon to be my fellow peers. The hard working taxi drivers are great. They have had to put up with all of us. The only Mandarin words I have really picked up are Hello (Knee How), Left (Zoah), Right (You), and Straight (Ye Zi Wa Chin). I am sure those are spelled incorrectly but I can at least pronounce them. The entire time I only had one thing written down in Chinese characters, which was the Apartment address. I called it the magical piece of paper, it had what appeared to be chicken scratch on it but you showed it to the taxi driver and you magically got home. Beyond that we got everywhere by showing pictures of things. People get really creative at communicating when you are unable to speak. I had a blast with the Mandarin sayings installed on my iphone. I would say a random saying from my phone and I always new I got it correct when they would look at me like did you really just say that. I am sure my accent on Mandarin is terrible matter of fact I know it is. I always got super funny reactions from these guys. There are plenty of ridiculous saying in the phone so I would pick one that was most fitting for the time. For instance I would often use the saying " I would like a beer". Then the driver would go off in his native tongue that I obviously could not understand a word of.

There are many people there that speak a bit of English so it was always fun to find out just how much they knew. This came about because early on in the trip we tried talking to a gate guard. He had said some thing in English very clearly so it appeared he knew enough English to help us out. Then when it came down to it he had practiced English sayings just for the Olympic games. When we asked something that he did not know the answer to he would just repeat a saying he had memorized. He was an English phrase speaking, armed, security, Chinese robot. I wonder how much I could get one for in the USA? Ever since this incident we all see how much English the probably robots know. It appeared that they did not know much after our extensive investigation into this matter. What we all discovered is since their English is minimal and they are relatively timid, we could get away with anything we wanted. If we were persistent and talked really really fast, you get what ever you are after. They are stubborn and standoffish at first but once they can not understand you it is completely different. I love countries where I can do pretty much what ever the hell I want. I think I have said this before, the U.S. is way to restrictive on my lawless life style. My skemming criminal mind could never flourish on the mainland.


Here we have China's number one ice cream bar. It is coffee ice cream covered with chocolate which is delicious. I am trying to figure out my the word Magnum just sounds dirty. As if it did not sound sexual they go ahead and put an attractive woman on the packaging. I can not figure out what Magnum and women have to do with ice cream but I do know that all the guys bought one and some got two.



I thought Starbucks was a rip off back home in china they really try to get you. I did not buy a drink since they are around 7 USD a cup here.


We were at the silk market in downtown Beijing and I ran into my good friend Jennie Finch.


Here is another one of Jennie encase you wanted a different pic. I think she may play an Olympic sport. If you know what it is let me know.


I could not resist trying on a Panda Bear hat at the silk street market. If you look to the left that is one of the many workers who think foreigners are crazy. I can tell she has judgmental eyes on me. I must give notice to the fact that these works are the most fluent English speakers in all of China. They have to bargain with foreigners all the time so they are very good and trying to make you buy things. They use such tactics as physically pulling on you to stay in a store until you buy some thing or trying to make you feel bad about not buying. It is a great time to go there and bargain. If you have the memorabilia pins you can get about 75% off anything. Shannon even traded two pins for a coach wallet.


Now here is ray, and just a couple seconds ago that table was about a meter off the ground. Yes, Ray broke the beer pong table. Latin cultures have things like salsa dancing which they share from generation to generation. Americans have beer pong. The beer pong table was quickly fixed with four chairs used as legs for the table. You know this bar was owned by an American because they were serving Rouge Brewery Beer. I have a feeling that it may be the only place in China to actually sell Rogue beer. Rogue is to nice of a brew to use for the pong so we had to stick with Tsingtao the locals delight.

Ray and Pat getting serious. It was about this time when a guy who thought we could not hear him said they must be Americans no one else plays that game.

Matt and Mike pulling the game some how with two back to back balls into the cups. The restaurant we are at here called the Ricshaw had the best Mexican food in Asia which is not even half as good as what is at home. I can not what to get a Sarita's Quesadilla when I get home. mmmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Tickets?

Tickets are very hard to get for events if you do not buy them in advance. Since they sold out over a year ago you are only going to get them from scalpers. The Chinese of course are trying to profit off the situation. So we wanted to get into the Birds Nest or the Water Cube and never could find tickets under 600 USD so we decided to make one last effort and get ticket for around 200-250 USD. I mean really when am I ever going back to Beijing and going to tour the Olympic stadiums. Ray and I started walking over to the ATM from the Canada house (thanks again Matt) and a guy apprached us. He was like hey do you want to buy some handball tickets for an event that is going on right now. He was will to sell them for below face value which almost never happens. When you are somewhere like China meeting so many different people you really start to pick up on accents. So, I could tell this guy was an American. We started talking more and I told him the type of tickets we were looking for and he said hang on a minute let me make a couple of calls. Low and behold they had two Birds Nest Tickets for that night at 150 USD a pop. Ray and I were just like "YES" we'll take them. We some how stumbled into getting tickets for the event. This is no easy task we really did not think we would ever get them. The dude also throw in the handball tickets for free.


We were very excited to get even next to the Birds Nest. You have to have a ticket to get within a mile of the thing. We both immediatly started taking pictures and as a result of this I think I have a couple hundred photos documents the next hours.

Thats a big bird's nest.


Chinese Troops.


More Nest


Hand Ball Gymnasium.

I really did not even know what handball was when I went into the gymnasium. I can safely say that it is lame and I will never go back. I am still trying to figure out how this is an Olympic sport.

Nose bleed seats but still they were not bad.


A crazy Norwegian. She gave me her flag. Then later on some guy came up to and started saying something in Norwegian and I looked at him with a blank stare. He then quickly walk away. As quickly as he walked away I gave the flag away. I do not want people thinking that I am Norwegian.


First site of the Aqua Cube a picture is nessasary.


Sun set at the Nest.


Yes, I fit in. just not here.

Close up rather uninteresting photo of the nest


My ticket to get in.\


The Birds Nest just as the sun was setting.


Let the track and field events begin.


The Stadium was packed.


We finally made it to our seats. They were a little high but over all athey were good. We got to see all of the events that were going on. They all go on simultaneously.


Wow, this place is big. I have been to a couple big places like Charlottee Motor Speedway, United Center in Chicago but I have never seen anything like this. This place is real big, I have nothing to compare it to. You should just go check it out but make sure to take a picture with you because you will not be able to tell the taxi driver where you want to go.


that is my happy face.


I watched the world record Javelin throw by Andreas Thorkildsen.



Despite popular opinion this is just the Olympic torch.



It is not easy making this many women this tired.


USA won the both the Men and Women's 400 Relay


A great shot if I must say so.

Ray and I were both ecstatic.


We cut infront of about 40 people waiting for a taxi by jumping in immediatly after someone stepped out of it. After the event was over everyone was trying to get out of there. We were sitting in traffic for a long time so I decided I would be a bit of a smart ass with the taxi driver and make some conversation. I got out my trusty unlocked iphone and told the driver I could use a beer. He then went off in Mandarin and before I knew it he pulled over in front of a 711.

Ray and I went and got 3 beers. One for each of us and one for the cabbie.


In an earlier blog I talked about trying to get into the Budweiser house. Before we did not have any luck because it was athletes plus one friend. We all decided we would go back just to see if we can get in even though Budweiser sucks and you should drink anything else. :)

Ray and Pat ready to roll out.


So we made it into the Budweiser house. Just like I was taught from an early age it is better to ask for forgiveness then permission. Once the front gate guard told us there was no way we were getting in we just went down a ways and all jumped the fence. This was a great idea until a minute later a guard on the other side of the fence started yelling at us. Now he was an American and told us we would spend 10 days in a Chinese prison if we did not leave immediately. That got us a little worried, then we told him that we would leave, he said ok then walk in the opposite direction. That is when we obviously knew he never say us jump over the fence and he can kiss my ass. We walked right in.

Free beer? Yes, please.

At least they sponsored my headache.


Good Bye Beijing.


Until the Next Olympics.

Thanks to all of Natalie's Coworkers for keeping up on my blog.

Make sure to comment.

Nick

Let me just tell you about today. There are always long days when you travel and today was one of those days for me. We got up at 6:55 am and I went to bed around 1:30 am. Here I go about the events of today.

One would figure since we had been planning on touring around the city of Beijing today for multiple days that it would rain. Rain it did, for I would say, well lets see here. Yeah, it was the entire freaking day. It was pouring rain when we got on our tour bus in the morning. Patrick was playing around with his camera and the flash went off and many people including Mike thought that it was lightening. So I thought I would join in the fun. We would both be flashing our cameras and Mike thought that it was lightening. This had to be one of the most funny thing that I have seen in week. He said and I quote "oh my god there is lightening all around us". hahahaha. No one could hold it in after that. This was a great start to a wet day.


A photo only taken to force the flash to go off on my camera.


The first place we stop today was Tiananmen Square. I think it was raining about an inch an hour so it was not to bad. I am some what happy that I had my rain coat with me. I have not really got a chance to use it before this. Even though I paid all that money at REI I have not really got to use it until now. I am guessing that Tiananmen square it much better to see when the visibility is over ten feet. The nice thing about being soaking wet in the rain here you never get cold.

It raining, raining, oh baby. lalala



Famous Tiananmen Square Photo.

Feel free to learn more about Tiananmen Square here at wikipedia

I will also have to read this about all the places I went since I quite listening to my tour guide early on in the tour because i could not understand a thing she said. I figured that I had hired her as my baby sitter so I did not get left any where. Since I dont listen to her this is how she would become useful for me. She has got some serious group baby sitting skills and let me tell you this takes great patience and persuasion.


Here is Patrick and Shannon happy about the rain.


Typically I think these photos would be killer. Here not so much, I am going to blame it on my poor lighting. Of course, the photographer knew what he was doing.



Thanks to who ever took this photo and thanks google images!




There is my top notch tour guide. (MIA) was here name-o.


There I am again soaking wet. I am standing in about a half inch of water.

This beautiful piece of art was built for the Olympics . Yup its nice. But what do you do with it afterwards?



One World, One Dream. (CHINA's dream is to Take Over the world)

Logos for the events.


Beijing 2008, on everything you can imagine here. Everything from temporary signage to permanent.


This is a Forbidden City. It is the size of some cities.


Pat and I went and sat in the police cart to get out of the for a sec. The chinese police officer was totally cool with it. No big deal to just jump in the cart with out asking.


I am just not sure which option to take it seem they are all win win for me.


Peace be with. And also with you.


I knew you would be interested in this. Even if your not let me tell you all about it. I am excited to tell you because this is one of the FEW things that I actually learned from touring around China. These cast pots were for holding water incase of fire. Awesome huh?


I know all of you are as interested in Zhang Juzheng as I am but the real reason I took this photo is because the face recognition software on my camera picked up his face.


This guy looks like a happy hash smoker. He's chill.



I am thinking if I through some armor on Echo she could look like this. I may need to also sharpen her nails and give her steroids but we'll get there.




Here is a flooded sidewalk. I probably should not have taken this photo due to the fact it just reminds me how wet the day was. I do not need a reminder of that.


Lunch Time:::::::::::::;

Would anyone like fish for lunch you can pick one out of the tank and have it prepared how ever your tastebuds desire.


I find that there are many meals replicated around here. The food is good but many times we end up at these buffet style places and the food is all the same. It tastes the same, it looks the same, it does not smell the same so I am thinking that it is government issued.



Time for the tour guide to get kick backs. So part of the deal of going on these tours for discounted prices you have to go tour factories because the guide is getting paid to do this. This is the silk factory. I do not think they actually make things here but they try to make tourist believe that they do. You will understand through the following photographs.

There I am.


Fake silk worms.

Fake factory workers. They were actually working but they then told us that it takes 79,000 silk worm cocoons to make a blanket. These girls processed about 20 the time we were there. I am calling BS on them.


It is cool how they processes the silk worm cocoons.


My hand at stretching the silk.


The tour guide telling the group how Amazing the silk is. once again BS.

1000USD sheets anyone?

Now this lady was steller. Her and shared a moment. She let me thread the silk string into the portrait for about five minutes. I brought the intracacy up to a new level.

ms. fast with needle was working away right here.


The following photos are from the summer Place. This was awesome but I was so damn tired by the time we got here all I wasnted to do was sit down and be lazy. Walking around for 8 hours straight is not the best way to keep tourist happy. What happen o the old fashion air conditioned bus and me taking pictures through a window. Zero calories burned and maximum laziness inforced. aaaaaahhhhh thats what I am talking about. any way check out the pics.

Here I am fitting in again.

Ma'am Sir (Shannon) was taking this photo and kept telling me to back up, back up.

We have a Sleeper!


Bordem dirived.

Bordem.



Famous bridge. Yeah, I dont know the name. I'll look it up though.



Pearl Factory. I hope the tour guide makes lots of money from taking us to these places.

Free pearls. To get you pumped up about pearls they do a whole introduction and then they open up a clam and give the group the pearls out of it. They did not find it nearly as funny as I did when they try to sell you pearls, that I was trying to sell them the pearls they had given me.


This is how I get around here. I take pictures of everything on my camera. Since I now can speak 8 words of Mandarin I get around well but not well enough. So I take pictures of buildings of directions anything that i can show to the cab driver which will help him get me to where I need to go. Here a picture is worth a thousand minutes. With out it you will be driving around in circles, literally.


Birds Nest. I drove by it so I thought I would take my 500th photo of it. Yup, it is that awesome.


A friend of Matt and Mike's hooked a couple of us up with tickets to the women's gold medal match USA vs. Japan. The Japanese woman's Softball team is the luckiest group of girls you could imagine. They were pulling plays out of their, Cap lets say.


We have a Sleeper.


Bright Stadium lights

A packed game.


Picture Picture.


Shannon makes friends easily after 3 glasses of wine.


Picture Picture.


This is a good ol' American Thumbs up for Peter.


Lots of flags at all of the events. On this trip I am reppin' Canada.



Olympic Mascots.


Time to start the ceremony, time for Nick to leave.



We made it back to Canada house. The drinking commenced with free beer and wine. Yup, we were all feeling it a bit. When it is all free I still feel like I have to get my money's worth out of it.


My directions to give to the taxi driver.



Ray, showning the fellas good back hand form.


We all then went out but only a couple could get in to Club Bud. I say budweiser sucks they are sell outs I am going to stick with COORS LIGHT, TSING TAO, and SAN MIGUEL.

I will try to post more pics ASAP. Lots more has happened since I started this blog.

Nick